Cino Moscatelli

Vincenzo Moscatelli, better known as Cino Moscatelli (3 February 1908 – 31 October 1981) was an Italian Resistance leader during World War II. After the war he became a politician in the Italian Communist Party, serving in the Italian Constituent Assembly, the Italian Senate and the Italian Chamber of Deputies.

Biography

Early life and anti-fascist activity

Vincenzo Moscatelli was born in Novara on 3 February 1908, in the working-class district of Sant'Andrea, to railway worker Enrico Moscatelli and housewife Carmelita Usellini. He was the fourth of seven children; growing up in the suburbs of Novara, he began attending the Railway Worker's Circle, "den of 'reds' and revolutionaries", from an early age. In one instance he organized a strike to protest against the lack of wood for the heating of the school, also involving the high school boys, and in July 1922, during the so-called "battle of Novara" which saw fascists and anti-fascists confront each other, he participated in the defense of the local Chamber of Labor, by throwing stones on the attacking squadristi. At the end of the sixth grade he abandoned his studies and took up a job as an apprentice at the Rumi factory and then, later, after attending a professional course with evening classes, as a turner at the mechanical workshops of Novara. During a strike organized by him in 1925 he joined the Communist youth, and started participating in clandestine activity. In the meantime, he worked in factories in Novara and later moved to Milan, where he started working at Alfa Romeo and then at Cerutti. At the same time he carried out intense organizational activity in the PCI and in the National Association of Partisans of Italy (ANPI) with the aim of preserving the history of the Resistance, founding in Borgosesia in October 1974 the Institute for the history of the Resistance and of contemporary society in the provinces of Biella and Vercelli, which was named after him the year after his death, with occurred in Borgosesia in 1981.